The New Zealand Mixed Curling team’s medal hopes were dashed after the team was knocked out of contention for the 2024 World Mixed Curling Championship on Friday.

The team consisted of Central Otago curlers Olivia Russell and Holly Thompson, along with Brett Sargon and KJ Fourd, of Auckland.

The Kiwis had made a strong start to the tournament, putting pressure on their opponents to win their first three games. 

They went off the boil, dropping two games to briefly put their playoff spot in jeopardy, but eventually went into their last pool game against leaders Canada knowing that their qualification was secure.

A win there would have placed them second in their pool, but despite playing probably their best game of the tournament they were beaten 8-5 and placed third.

Sixteen teams made it through to the knockout rounds, with the New Zealand team coming up against an “efficient’’ USA side​​

The USA team made it difficult for NZ to get scores on the board, winning the match 6-1.

Skip Brett Sargon said to win against the top teams the Kiwi’s needed to “get something out of every shot’’ to put them under any kind of pressure.

"We weren't quite there, and they were. It has been a great competition though and we felt we deserved to be in playoffs, just didn't quite do enough to give ourselves a chance to make it to the quarters,’’ he said.

This was just the second time a Kiwi side has qualified for the knockout rounds at a World Mixed Championship, the first being eight years ago in Russia.

Defending champions Sweden claimed the gold medal on Saturday, going undefeated for 11 straight wins.

Japan took home the silver medal - its first-ever World Mixed curling medal - while Switzerland beat Spain to claim bronze.